Rewound

Vicky’s Point of View

Running a base like this wasn’t very easy, especially since all of the logistical work got pushed onto us, and because I’m such a good person, I tend to handle all the tedious shit other people don’t want to do. Especially Danny; besides being strong, he would rather people die than do this ‘boring’ stuff all the time. Thankfully, we had the people around to make sure our base was the best off compared to everyone else.

The best system we came up with wasn’t by any of us, but by Howard, the super smart doctor. He took the humanity out of the plans and boiled it down to strictly survival. Just about everyone in our territory can survive, but the luxury you can have fluctuates dramatically depending on what tier job they had. “Did we fix the issue on the filtration system for the eleventh duckweed pond yet? I know we were having some issues with it last time I checked.”

One of the maintenance men chimed in on my question. “Yeah, a fish swam in and clogged it with its dead body. Had to tear down the whole thing and put it back together, but it's running again.” The first thing to solve was the food shortage; Howard came up with the best solution. Growing duckweed and maggots to turn into protein bars for people to have.

As disgusting as it sounded, it was the easiest thing to grow to feed a population we didn’t have the area to support. Anything large-scale would be continuously attacked by the people we were trying to feed, so small-scale/large-yield products that could be used for other things were the way to go. The duckweed and maggot bars were free here; you couldn’t even give them away, but in other territories, they were worth their weight in gold.

The duckweed ponds also housed fish, and both the duckweed and maggots could be used as chicken feed if we had a surplus of either, which was the case most of the time. Millions of people were still alive because of the systems we put in place, and making sure they stayed working was something we had to do in order to not have food shortages like everywhere else.

Most people fell into the tier one category. Anyone working a job that didn’t require any training, that wasn’t very important, fell into this category. Drivers, guards, laborers, all those types of jobs, and people fought for them. Even the lowest-tier person here was still above anywhere else because of the food and safety we provided.

It was very dehumanizing, but it was the only way we could support so many people living here. The payment came out to a bone coin per hour, and they could purchase other things with the money besides the food we provided everyone, which, once again, no other bases provided for free; our base was the safest/easiest to raise a child in as well.

I looked at a gauge as I asked another question. “These solar farm readings are a little low compared to normal. We know why?” A different engineer answered my question. “Yeah, we had a misalignment with the panels; they weren’t moved back after daylight savings. It’s fixed now.” I looked over the consoles again; sometimes other factions sent spies in to sabotage us, and this didn’t appear to be one of those times, as it added up in my head.

It was weird. I was never really that intelligent. Sure, I was business savvy, but never at this level. Having powers that also improved everything about you was incredible and still took some getting used to, even years after I gained them. I was smarter, but not the egghead levels of Danny or Howard; none of us were, thankfully.

The four main solar farms surrounding our faction, on top of the warehouses that raised our livestock, supplied most of the power to everyone who could afford it, while also providing the main base with multiple redundancies in case one was attacked. The surrounding areas also had more livestock/solar farms, but only the four largest were monitored here.

We were still in the process of converting most of the transport vehicles to electric; even now, with the government collapsing, the world kept on progressing, possibly even faster than it ever had before. Howard was now devising new systems and inventions that might take another hundred years for humanity to invent, all because of the intelligence power he gained, including a desalination process to remove salt from saltwater, providing water to anyone who could copy his invention elsewhere. Some of his inventions, like that one, were given away for free to whoever could make them, but the weaponry he was inventing stayed hidden until it was needed.

The more useful, the harder the job you filled, the more you got paid as well. People like engineers, technicians, doctors, powered individuals, people who took enhancement liquid, and those who couldn’t be easily replaced were considered tier two civilians. They made much more, and because of that, they were afforded more luxuries, like plumbing and electricity. Years after the case, we were still recovering, still building back the infrastructure that was lost. We were years, if not decades, away from having power and water as plentiful to everyone as they were before the flood.

It was awful. We were close to having people take over all these processes, but sometimes, one of us needed to stop and check in to make sure everything was running smoothly, and there was no plotting behind our backs. We were going to move to the next room, where the distribution routes were tracked, when someone finally made their move.

“Die, you bitch!” I didn’t even turn, knowing what was going to come next as an explosion rang out. Then the man who just tried to shoot me cried out in pain. “Did you just try to shoot me with one of the guns I enhanced? Well, you’re missing your hand, so I’d assume so.” Even if he didn’t, the bullets wouldn’t have struck me. I was wearing a bullet deflection shield I made myself, but every gun I enhanced also had the code put in that if someone tried to fire it at one of us, it would explode.

He moved to attack me, but I was enhanced now and wearing enhanced gear, kicking him in the chest hard enough to make him roll backward, knocking him out, if not killing him outright. I turned to one of the other guards following behind us, who hadn’t pulled out his gun. “Take him to the interrogation guys and see if we can’t get any valuable information from him.” I still couldn’t believe how much I changed sometimes. I just ordered the torture of someone with barely any hesitation, all because he was part of a rival group… And he just tried to kill me.

The guard I spoke to was one of the more trustworthy guards, as he had a family to raise and was one of the few tier three civilians. Everyone in the inner circle was considered a tier three civilian. Those who were part of our group from the beginning, or those too important to lose. As good as being tier three sounded, we’ve had a few try to defect and… It never ended well for them. 

Someone even managed to escape our territory, but after his location was found out, Dan went there and made an example of him, and that was only because he wasn’t privy to the real secret information, or he wouldn’t have even made it that far. I could only sigh as I wasn’t even halfway done with checking everything I needed to, and I already felt tired. Waiting for the spies to make their move always sucked the most, and I knew for a fact that one of these engineers was one; it was just about waiting until the right time to take them out.

Chapter 92

Meanwhile, at Negan’s base…

“Are you serious? We’ve sent a dozen spies, and all of them are dead or defected. What the fuck is that group offering them? Unlimited blowjobs and pancakes or something?” Negan lined up his putter as he took a shot on the green. The shot would have gone wide, but a metal bumper moved at the perfect time to help nudge it in.

A man wearing a lab coat with thick coke-bottle glasses nudged them up with his hand before he agreed with his leader. “Exactly, we’re sending in people without anything to lose. I think if we take some of the higher-ranking members with families and make them go instead, and tell them if they fail, we’ll kill their entire families, we’d get better results.”

Negan thought about it for a moment before giving the go-ahead. “Fine, just people from my outer circle. My inner guys are too important to sacrifice.” A woman who was tied up and had a gag in her mouth had remained completely still and silent until Negan finished up with his advisor and looked at her. Like a prey animal looking directly into a predator's eyes, she diverted hers as her body began to shake uncontrollably from fear.

Negan laughed at her. “Aww, isn’t that cute. You’re afraid of me now that you've seen what I’m capable of.” He swaggered over to her before taking her chin in his hand and undoing the gag in her mouth. She immediately began to plead her case. “Please, I didn’t betray you, Negan. That man I was talking to was my brother! I would never cheat on you with anyone else.”

He floated over a metal baseball bat with barbed wire wrapped around it that he kissed as he mimed swinging a few times. “Sure, we can all say one thing. But do you have any proof he’s your brother? Because my men say you were really happy to see him, smiling and touching his shoulder. How do I know you don’t have some sort of freaky thing with him?”

The woman finally looked disgusted as she spoke. “Oh god, that’s disgusting! I’d never do that with my brother, Patrice.” The jovial smile on Negan’s face faded away as the woman realized what she said. “I meant Negan! Your name is Negan!” He moved to swing his bat down before shouting. “My name is Negan!” But before it made contact, he stopped it from landing just inches away from her head.

Breathing heavily as he calmed down, the fake smile went right back onto his face. “Fine, alright then. I’ll give you a chance. You can prove your loyalty to me by killing your so-called brother. That will make us Even Stevens.” She looked terrified for a second before crying harder than she had before, bawling to the point that snot ran from her nose as she could only get a few words out in between her loud sobs.

Negan let it go on for a few minutes as if he enjoyed her crying out from the torture before he stopped her. “Well, it’s either that or.” The room was warmer than most, the wood stove heating the room, but also heating the branding iron that was inside. It floated over to his outstretched hand effortlessly as he gave her an ultimatum. “Alright, you either kill your supposed brother right now or… I burn this mark on your face, and you’re free to go.”

She didn’t answer, her lip quivering as she remained still, just looking at the glowing red branding iron he held in his hand, before Negan sighed before speaking again. “Well, since you’re unsure what you want to do. I’ll choose for you. Now, lean back, and this will be over in a second. Then I’ll go chop off your brother's balls and let you two go.”

She knew he was lying, and hated herself for being too scared to speak. No matter how long it had been, she’d never seen Negan let anyone go.

…

One of the leaders of a bigger city stood with his arms behind his back as a man approached him with two cups of coffee on a plate. Without looking, the man took the coffee and began to drink it as they both sat in silence until the coffee was done. “So, did they agree to any of our terms?” The man waited another second before speaking, which was enough for the leader to assume what they said.

“They have been… Unagreeable with us so far; perhaps we should attack them; if we kill some of them, they might agree to join us.” The man stood there still, looking at the cameras set up all over his base that showed off what most people were doing. The kitchen was breaking down a deer they managed to catch for his venison that night, the bodyguards routinely patrolled the walls they had built, and even the children playing had supervision he could track as he answered.

“No, if we push too hard, they’ll join our enemies… Perhaps we can use a borrowed knife to scare them. Send information on their location to Negan’s base. Heh, I still can’t get over the fact that some loser changed his name and is cosplaying an apocalyptic leader like some sort of clown. Right, Dale?” The man could only smirk at what his leader said as he agreed with him. “It’s like he’s so afraid of being himself that he has to put on an act. He’ll most certainly be the first base to fall. I’d put my money on it, Police Captain Jacobs.”

…

An all-female group of women ran around as they prepared to meet their potential new members. They had found and begun talks with a group of people who owned camping vans, and now all they had to do was convince them to abandon their dead weight and bring in only the women. The leader had two women on either side of her as she barked out orders.

“Come on, we got to put our best foot forward when we meet them! I hear their leaders are already women, so it won’t take any effort to convince them to join us! Yay!” As she spoke the last sentence, all the women quit doing whatever they were doing as they raised their hands and also cheered. “Yay!”

…

A four-star general sat motionless with many other worker drones, all doing what they were supposed to be doing. All the hard work, while he took all the credit. The government and military got word that America wasn’t as bad off as the estimates had shown, and their time south was quickly coming to an end because of the zombie mosquitoes that had popped up.

Because of that, his job had shifted. He now needed to retake as much land as he could before the bulk force of the army finally arrived… And the first thing he planned to do was turn his enemies against each other. There was no Geneva Convention anymore; civilian casualties were more than likely but easily pushed aside for the greater good, and he had gotten authorization to use chemical weapons and actual military vehicles to flatten their enemies… Now, all he had to do was wait. Wait until they went to war with each other, then he could swoop in and clean house.

…

A group of armed Texans arrived at a well-defended house. Texas had gone mostly untouched, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have problems. It was just that most problems came from people rather than zombies or the weather. They poured out of a truck before taking cover behind it, before a woman asked a few questions. “People inside this well-defended home, are you armed, and do you have a family?”

Whoever was inside put their flag out as one of the women inside came out with her hands up. “Umm. Are you from The Families? We have… Weapons. We aren’t defenseless and… Yes, we do have children inside.” Things began to move differently than they would have if it were just armed men inside. They incorporated them into their own group, strengthening themselves by protecting the weak, binding them tighter than any other group.

Chapter 93

Third Person Point of View

The observations by a very observant individual on the effects of powers on individuals. By Richard B. Poppin. The first observation is that it affects everyone differently. Whether two twins activate the same power, it acts differently for each of them. Both are more than likely to get different powers, but if they did get the same through an experiment, the powers would begin to branch off and act differently as they grew in strength.

The other very observable fact for these powers is that they affect men and women differently. Women tend to lean toward the extreme scale for powers, while men fill the middle ground in most cases. There were outliers, but that was what made it more obvious that it was the case. Most men got decent/reliable powers, while women got the best and worst, but far more varied than men.

Another noticeable difference was that powers tended to make the person more beautiful as they grew in strength. Once again, there were outliers; some people grew grotesque from their power, but that was once again just proof that the trend leaned more towards beautifying humanity. This is because the virus is inside the person, active, and it wants to spread.

Most of the time, the virus is dormant, but sometimes, through sexual copulation, a person can gain powers or die and turn into a zombified carrier of the virus. The observed changes for most powers are that the first few ranks all tend to smooth out and make the person look better. Wrinkles disappeared, cellulite and scars went away as well.

At higher levels, the beautifying effect is either enhanced or rendered pointless because of the uncanny valley effect they develop. While women all lean towards pure beautification, men tend to grow more into their power. A speed-based woman would take on a more athletic, runner build, while a man might grow another few inches, all in his legs as they grew in size and mass. A muscular trait might make a man look like a fictional character, beyond what normal bodybuilders were capable of, as their muscles kept expanding to fit their hunger for power.

Beyond tier three puts most people into ranges beyond physical attraction that humans were capable of before the apocalypse, and gaining powers. It’s theorized that this change will only continue to grow until powered individuals have gigantic harems of other powered individuals and men non empowered females, as all the procreation chances are taken by an extremely small portion of the male population. Sort of like lions.

Thus, constant conflicts occur. Men instinctively want to gain power because they instinctively know the world is changing, and the powerful are the only ones able to control what happens to them. This is clear in how the bases are formed. Besides the army remnants faction and the all-female faction, every single leader of every other faction has a large stable of women.

Negan tends to go through them more quickly, not taking many as wives, and often even killing his wives, but he takes on most women if they’re interested, even those some might deem unattractive. Jacobs doesn’t outwardly state that he gives preferential treatment to women he slept with, but digging more into it, it was clear that was the case.

Then there was the last, and most powerful leader, Danial Storm. His large harem is comprised almost completely of powered women, all growing more attractive as more continuously join. Most of the scientific research was started by him, as he appeared to be ahead of everyone else in terms of power level. One of the few men who didn’t suffer from the uncanny valley effect; if he wished so, he could have any woman he wanted.

And women wanted him to a disgusting level. There was a fan club and cult tied to information on how to get him to sleep with them, and many lives were lost from infighting/sabotage from their own members. Many lives were taken because someone insulted him in front of a powerful fan or cult member. And just as many took their lives once they realized he would never care for them, unwilling to live in a world where they couldn’t be a part of his.

His appearance is often compared to what most would consider angelic or demonic. Whether an angel or an incubus, one thing was clear. He was more than willing to bed women and take new ones into his harem. Many women already had his children, and a dramatic number more wanted to have his children. One thing was for sure: he was the leader to beat to take the top spot in this world, and many other leaders were looking to take him down, sooner or later…

…

I poured another load into Melissa’s waiting womb. She loved to get pregnant, and ever since she gave birth to the first one of my kids, she has spent just as much time taking care of them as she has trying to get knocked up again. This would be her fourth pregnancy, and with the womb-filling amount of seed I pumped into her while she was ovulating, there was an extreme likelihood that she was pregnant again.

It wasn’t just her, though, as a good part of my wives all wanted to get pregnant again. Some were already filled and lying in a position that made conception more likely. Vicky sat, her legs up in the air as she asked. “So, what’s up with that power information book we leaked to the other groups?” Melissa moved over and sat next to her, her legs up in the air in the same manner as I answered her.

“It’s many things, actually. I want them to be worried about me, and that was the main reason. Wary enough to back off if I challenged them, but constantly looking for weaknesses, which will let us take out their more competent spies. Another reason would be to gain more useful women.” “Of course, that’s the real reason.”

I looked at Lissa, who was the one who cut me off; she was sitting on the opposite side of Vicky as I kept going. “Women might even be willing to betray their own groups if it meant having a chance with me. I wouldn’t bring every woman in; I obviously have plenty right now, and if they don’t meet my minimum threshold, I’d just use them up and then kill them.” “Fucking brutal, Danny. If I wasn’t already filled with your cum, I’d want a fresh load with all that dirty talk.”

Maria was another who wanted to constantly have kids; it put a damper on many of my plans. A pregnant wife was a less capable wife, after all, but it was hard to turn them down, especially when they were so forward with actions. With this many wives, they had to be the ones to make most of the moves, because if they didn’t, another woman would, and they’d go unfucked until they noticed and corrected the action.

Luna chuckled, also sitting in the pregnancy-increasing position as she responded. “So full. I feel like a bowl filled to the brim. It makes me feel so… Content for some reason.” Pulling Jade into position, I started fucking her in a mating press while I kept explaining my future plans to them. “Regardless, it’s to stir them up, get them moving because this peace won’t last, and I want them acting in ways I can predict, so I’m guiding them to make the wrong choices, like fighting each other over those RVs.”

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